Drop down boxes ok in Crystal Reports but not ok in Crystal Reports Server

Question

I have the following problem with "dynamic dropdowns"
Initially, I have a Crystal Report (.rpt).  It has two dynamic drop downs. They work
in both Crystal Reports Designer (preview)  and Crystal Reports Server (right-click-View).
The first drop down is the result of a rather complex sql query. The second drop down
is a child of the first.
I make a small change to the sql "WHERE" clause using the Crystal Reports Designer. It works fine in preview.
I save (Enterprise mode) to Crystal Server. I use Business View Manager to configure
the _DC_n object.  (I did notice that the .._DC_n gets incremented by one.)
The _DF object seems to know about the updated sql so I do not have change it.
However, when I go to back to Crystal Reports Server, and right-click-View, the
"dynamic dropdown" is not working properly.  I can not make sense
of what has been retrieved.
Please tell me what is most likely to have gone wrong here?  The Business View Manager
seemed to knew about the sql change. But Crystal Reports Server has
not responded to the change in the same way as Crystal Reports Designer.
                   ...thank you, Stan

Answer 1

When you publish a report to Crystal Server, the dynamic prompts are no longer handled in the report itself.  Instead depending on how they're published, they either go away or they're published to the "repository" and managed through the "Business View Manager" (BVM), which is available as part of the Client Tools install.
To get the dynamic prompt into the repository, you have to check the "Enable Repository Refresh" checkbox at the bottom of the "Save As" screen after you log in to CRS.  However, doing it this way is NOT best practice, especially if you're using the query from the report to provide the data for the prompt.  If you do this for all of your reports, you get a LOT of bloat in the repository objects and it makes the job of migrating from one version of CRS to another MUCH more difficult!
What I've done in the past to get a simple "sample" prompt published is create a report that just contains the data that I want to have in the dynamic parameter using a single table - this is usually what I call a "lookup" table that has a "code" field and a "description" or "name" field.  I then create a dynamic parameter in that report that just pulls the data from the single table.  I'll publish the report to my favorites with the Repository Refresh enabled.
I then run the BVM and look for the following objects (default location is under "Cascading Dynamic Prompts":
<prompt name>_DC - This is the Data Connection for the prompt.  Edit this, enter the password, and set it to "Never Prompt" for the password.  NOTE:  This DC can be reused by multiple prompts.  If you continue to add prompts through publishing Crystal Reports with prompts, you will get MANY of  these that all point to the same database!
<prompt name>_DF - This is the Data Foundation for the prompts.  When you create a new one, you need to select an existing DC and then either one or more tables or write a command to provide the data for your prompt.  It works much like the Database Explorer in Crystal.  The one that was just saved has all of the information required for the prompt.
<prompt name>_BE - This is the Business Element.  When you create one, you have to select and existing DF and one or more fields.  You can also create a filter on the data.  This is used to generate the SQL that will be run to provide the data for the prompt.
<prompt name>_ BV - This is the Business View.  When you create one, you have to select the Business Element.  I'm not sure of the exact purpose of this, but you have to have one in order to set up the "List of Values".
<prompt name> - This is the List of Values (LOV).  This defines what fields are available for the prompt itself.
You can create folders to organize these objects so that its easier to maintain.
To use a LOV that you've defined in BVM to feed data to new dynamic prompts, do the following:
1.  Connect to CRS from Crystal.
2.  Create/Edit your prompt.
3.  Set the prompt to be dynamic.
4.  Under "Choose a Data Source", select "Existing" and select the LOV from the drop-down list.
5.  Update the properties in the parameter.
When viewing or scheduling a report, the dynamic prompts will run through the Crystal Reports 2013 Report Application Server in CRS (it will be named differently if you're not on CRS 2013, but will have "Report Application Server" in the name.)
-Dell